To Be Decided
by Eden Alice Poe
Summary: Rachel & Jason are paired up for an assignment that none seem too thrilled about. Jason's family soon arrives in Jump to complicate matters as Jason finds himself in the middle of the family feud of the century.
1. Chapter 1

Authors Note: Major AU, Rachel- Raven, Jason-Red X, Kori- Starfire, Karen- BumbleBee; Major OOC-ness, you have been warned... full explanation at the bottom, try to enjoy...

Dedicated to Ray Bradbury(read AN at bottom for explanation), 1920-2012, great author, great guy. Fun fact: He wrote some of his own fanfiction as well! No joke, he couldn't wait for the next book to come out in a series he was reading, so he wrote the sequel himself to lessen the wait! Who woulda thought?!

Now, onto the fic!

To Be Decided

"Wait, WHAT?!"

Jason Todd glared at his new partner. Never before had he been so angry at the teacher's stupidity. He could handle the constant tests and notes, he could take spontaneous essays and pop quizzes, he could even see the point of the major semester projects that would count for a large percentage of your grade.

What he couldn't stand was when the teacher's paired kids up for meaningless group activities that would always end up being more trouble than they were worth.

What made this whole predicament even worse was the fact that Jason had gotten the news from his new partner, Rachel Roth, one of the most difficult people he had known since his middle school days.

"It's not that bad," Rachel reasoned, "I mean all she's asking of us-"

"It's not the assignment I'm upset over," Jason huffed.

Rachel got a confused look in her violet eyes. She never had understood Jason. None of the kids ever really did.

"Well there's worse people that she could've paired up, and it's better than working in a huge group. Now we can share the work equally," she beamed.

'Which is Rachel-speak for, 'you're going to end up doing everything',' Jason thought, 'Just perfect…'

The duo had finally made their way to their bus seats, the air filling up with the sounds of tired students chatting about the day's events and becoming polluted with the scent of sweaty jocks and perfume of the preppy cheerleaders.

Taking seats near the back, as was standard procedure for the juniors and seniors, Rachel and Jason continued their conversation, failing to notice the glares from their new bus driver.

"I miss one class, and end up paired with you. Of all the people she could've chosen," Jason didn't try to hold in his contempt for Rachel any longer.

"It's not exactly my fault, I was so ready to pair up with Kori or Karen when she told us she already had our partners picked for us. Then I find out I'm the only person whose partner isn't at school. Do you realize how hard it is to start on a project when your partner's not even there to help come up with ideas?"

'Must've been murder for you to use all of that limited brain capacity of yours,' Jason thought derisively.

"And then, there's the fact-"

"Why don't we just see what you were able to come up with on your own."

"Oh, sure," Rachel said cheerily, reaching for her bag. She shuffled a lot of things around, searching for what she had been working on much earlier in the day.

Jason ran a hand through his dark hair angrily. Looking back on what had kept him from getting to school on time, and making him miss the first three classes of the day, he could pin it all down to one person, himself. If Jason had been studying like he usually had, he wouldn't have had to study so much the night before. He would've set his alarm just like every Sunday night, and would've woken up this morning, on time and prepared for the week. But he hadn't, so now his whole schedule felt completely off; getting this extra assignment was just the icing on the cake, adding insult to injury, rubbing salt in his poor wound.

"Here it is!" Rachel squealed.

"Delightful," Jason grumbled, "Let's see what that brilliant mind of yours came up with."

Rachel handed the sheet of paper over, her eyes sparkling with anticipation. She knew that no one was ever disappointed when they read over her project ideas. People had always told her that she had a great imagination and that her approach was always so original. But then again, she was used to taking the leadership position in these group projects, which usually meant doing a lot of the work while most of the kids stepped aside and let her direct them.

She watched Jason's face for any sign of approval, but wasn't able to read the expression in his dark blue eyes. He kept his face relatively smooth as his eyes scanned the paper; every so often they seemed to twitch, as if they had seen something that stood out to them. Rachel couldn't tell if this was a good or a bad thing, though.

Jason, however placid he may have seemed, was really struggling to restrain himself from laughing out loud. This girl was kidding, right? These would've been perfectly fine topics, if they had still been in middle school. This project was requiring college level assessment, yet all of Rachel's suggestions shouldn't have even been considered once. Must less, written down to be considered by her partner.

"I see your thought process still hasn't changed much since middle school," Jason spoke just loud enough for her to hear.

"Thanks!"

"Not a compliment. You realize we can use exactly none of this, right?"

Rachel's brow furrowed in confusion. "Why? There's got to be something on there. Are you just having a hard time choosing or maybe we should choose a much simpler topic?"

"There's something simpler than these? You're kidding, right?" Jason carefully watch Rachel's eyes for any sign of a jest, that she was really playing an elaborate joke on him and he had fallen for it, hook, line, and sinker, but no such luck. She looked back very seriously; still not comprehending why Jason wouldn't want to work with one of the great topics she had come up with all on her own.

Jason gave another sigh. "Rachel, these are just not good enough. I know this is hard for you to hear, but your ideas never were the best, and they still aren't now, either."

"Well, if you're so great at these types of projects, why don't you work on the topic and I'll miss a whole class period just to catch up on my sleep!" she glared at him.

"That's not the point," Jason tried to stay calm, but with a lot of the kids, especially ones like Rachel, it was difficult.

"What I'm saying is-"

"Oh, I know exactly what you mean!"

"You do?" He asked skeptically.

"Yeah."

"Prove it," he challenged.

"You're saying that I've got no originality,"-'Which is true,' he thought-"I can't possibly be called upon to pull my own weight for our partnership,"-'I did think that at some point' he admitted to himself-"AND I shouldn't be counted on when you need me to cover our butts because you had to miss an important day that was the only chance we had to work on this stupid project in class!"-'That should be the end of her rant now. Maybe I should-'

"I swear, Jason, you have to be the most- ugh! I don't know what!" she huffed as she slumped into her seat, facing away from Jason and out to the moving landscape in the window.

"While that is certainly a very apt description of the general animosity that I feel towards our partnership, it's not why I said we can't use those ideas," he finally stated.

"Wait, what?"

"These ideas are below our teacher's expectations for us. We should be able to take things like this and elaborate even further," Jason went on his own rant about critical thinking and how as juniors they need to start thinking on a level to rival a college students so they're better prepared for when they need to take college level classes.

"You joking? Are you calling me stupid?! Ugh! I knew it! I knew that when the teacher would pair me up with such an arrogant- ugh! I thought, 'Oh, Rachel, maybe he's changed since those days, maybe he'll be okay as a partner this time around, maybe he'll be less of a fathead.' But no, I still get the same Jason who would ridicule all my decisions and poke fun when I'm really in the right and be a total jerk for no good reason other than just because he thinks he's so high and mighty and just so full of himself! Well I've got news for you, buddy, you're not all that! I'm not all that! This is just a stupid project that we need over and done with so we can move on with our lives! So just pick SOMETHING already and be done with it!"

Rachel let out another huff of air that she couldn't possibly believe she had been holding in. With all that she had been yelling and raving about, neither she, nor Jason had noticed that the new bus driver had pulled the bus over to start yelling at both of them.

After her anger had been spent and she made her way back to the front to begin the route to take the students home, Rachel and Jason had more or less made up.

"Look, if it's really bugging you, just… Eeny Meeny Miney Mo?"

"That school yard game that kids used to pick people for their kickball teams? 'Catch a Tiger by his Toe', and all that stuff?" Jason looked at her like she was crazy.

"Well, when I just can't make a decision on something, it's what I use. Sometimes it's just easier to let chance take its course and see what you can make out of it," she tried to reason.

"Whatever, give me that thing."

He snatched the paper away from her, taking a pen out so he could circle his permanent selection and 'be done with it' as Rachel had said, and proceeded to make his choice using the game he hadn't played since he was the one to pick between two kids for a soccer game he played in his elementary school days.

"…My momma said to pick the very best one," his pen hovered over the paper now, "And you are-" the bus screeched to a jolting halt, just as at the same time one of the Senior jocks had gotten up to get off at his stop. As fate would have it, the jock was jerked forward and pushed Jason's arm, causing him to leave a whopping unsightly ink smudge on the paper, which, when he pulled his hand away, had somehow managed to be circling on of the choices Rachel had written out.

"It," Rachel smiled as she finished the rhyme. "Excellent choice, by the way."

"Yeah, remind me to let these geniuses help make all my decisions for me," Jason grumbled, once more returning to his bitterness with having another decision, in his opinion, made for him.

"Sure."

Jason groaned at Rachel's returning mindlessness.

Whether having Rachel as a partner was going to be an okay experience or a nightmare had yet to be decided, as far as Jason was concerned.

"So, I guess I'll see you tomorrow morning in the library? Or we could work on this thing during lunch and after school, but I've got more time in my morning schedule, so that'd really be the best thing for me-"

"I'll be there. Real early. Especially now that I have some incentive not to sleep in any more."

"That's a laugh," Rachel said as she got up to leave for her stop, "See you tomorrow then!"

Jason nodded back. Finally, he had time to relax and try to think over the much more pressing matters in his life, like what he was going to do about the real work to be done for his other classes. But the thought of Rachel as his partner still lingered in his mind, festering like a poorly treated sore. Jason knew he needed to finish this project as soon as humanly possible if he wanted to retain a shred of his sanity.

...

So that's all! Sorry I haven't updated any of my other stuff yet. I have major writer's block for Behind the Scenes, & my beta hasn't sent over the 2nd or 3rd shot for Living Things, but rest assured, both will be updated asap!

Now for why this came in: This was originally an assignment for English, writing a short story. My focus was verbal irony, or for the layman- sarcasm. You really couldn't tell with all of Jason's remarks, huh? I would've switched the names for Raven's more sarcastic nature, but I'm too lazy, so I just added the last names at the beginning to more clearly define who they were. I used Jason in the assignment I turned in, cause I was reading Mark of Athena at the time, plus that new TT short "Red X Unmasked" had me thinking. I rewatched episode: X and sure as anything, on BB's blackboard in the background, Jason Todd is one of his suspects for who Red X really is (along with the Interdemensional Imp i.e. Larry, Robin's evil twin Nibor, and a Bionic monkey, lol) Raven's name in the comics is Rachel Roth/ Raven Roth/ Raven, etc., etc., & I've always loved her so much, I just used her name for the assignment, plus I couldn't think of anything ^^.

Yes, she was OOC, but this was AGAIN for an assignment, so whatever. Tell me what you think anyways, tell me to get my butt into gear for my other stories, tell me I suck, its all good. this is america- or where ever you other readers may live- do what ya like, I could care less. Reviews appreciated, though! Thanks a bunch to those who have R&R to my other stories, you guys are what makes authors like me WANT to post more!

Also, my teacher's a Bradbury freak, we had to read Illustrated Man over the summer, now we're getting into Fahrenheit 451. I'll admit, I love his works, I just hate how we have to do work over his works. XD Get it? Ha, yeah, this is what i get for having almost zero life outside my fandoms & school... NI! So, if this seems loaded down with syntax & stuff, blame the Bradbury influence, may he rest in peace...

What are you still doing here? Go away & review! Get back to your lives! XP

Alice, out!


	2. Chapter 2

Jason had been waiting all morning, it seemed. Then again, being first in the library, or first in school for that matter, didn't help things. Sure, catching a ride the day before had been a fluke, but now that his car was all fixed up, Jason couldn't help but regret his newfound commitment to getting up early, no matter how much the cause really could help him get further ahead.

It was well known at Jump High, that Jason was smart. Perhaps too smart. Being the second adopted son of the billionaire, Bruce Wayne, tended to make people think a little more highly of you. Though, he was a little lesser known. Dick was the first, after all. And the media just _adored_ Tim. Jason was the overlooked middle child, very troublesome at all those stuffy private schools in Gotham. So Bruce sent him to Jump. To learn some manners in a public school half way across the country, and to have him out of the public eye for awhile.

Of course, while mulling over these thoughts, he failed to notice more students pouring in, including his partner for the next week or so, Rachel Roth.

As fate would have it, none other than the adopted brother that he had come to loathe would soon be joining the student population as well that tuesday. Heaven forbid Bruce warn his 'son' or anything. Oh no, let him discover this all on his own.

Some careless teen had left a book lying down on the floor, a librarian had yet to even start a patrol around, straightening books. Of course, Rachel fell before she even knew what tripped her up.

And none other than a this new young man, mentioned before, would come swooping in to save her from her fall.

"Thanks for catching me..." she was at a loss for what to call this very new, very handsome, very mysterious savior.

"Grayson. Richard Grayson." She recognized the name, as most did. After all, he was pretty famous among most of the female population of any high school in the county, not only for the playboy reputation to rival his surrogate father, but for being so devilishly handsome and mysterious. The paparazzi had yet to capture his true eye color, as he had been reported either wearing shades all the time or he had been caught several times with different contacts in, sometimes two totally different shades just to throw anyone off his trail.

Of course, Rachel, no matter what Jason or others thought of her, wasn't your typical girl. She would not let _the_ Richard Grayson have it any easier than another stranger to the school.

"Well, thanks a lot, _Dick_, see ya around!"

Mr. Grayson, to say the least, was shocked by her response. He let out an indignant, "Hey!" before being shushed by a librarian.

"Where have you been all morning?" Jason whispered harshly, barely above the din of students chattering or typing on computers for last minute research papers.

"I would've been here all the sooner if that Dick over there had simply broken my fall and moved on like anyone else. I swear, Todd, I hope your little brother at least has some good sense."

"Wait, Dick is here!?"

"Uh, yeah he just walked out to head to the cafeteria- hey, where do you think you're going! We have research to start on! Ms. de Mille is going to throw a fit if we don't have at least some of it done today!"

"Let her!" he called back rather lamely. 'Dick is here? I thought Bruce said he wouldn't be sending anyone here to babysit me. And where is he staying? Why is he in Jump at all?'

He burst into the cafeteria, several heads near the doors turned, but Jason was too busy scanning the crowds for the telltale jet-black hair and shades. Or, at the very least, the monogrammed jacket the kid swore he would wear everywhere. It was bright red and green, so Dick basically looked like Christmas everywhere he went, but it had a little 'R' insignia on the breast, yellow in a black circle. "For Richard," Tim had explained that Christmas morning.

Sure enough, there he was, already getting to know the preps and the jocks, what had become to be know as, 'the Titans'. The core group had always consisted of Kori Anders, Garfield Logan, Victor Stone, and, believe it or not, Rachel Roth.

Kori Anders, a senior varsity cheerleader and all around nice girl of the school. For some reason absolutely unknown to the student population of Jump High, she was best friends with Rachel Roth, the two had been inseparable since their middle school days. She was extremely popular with, well, everyone, as they all found it hard to hate her for being so damn perpetually happy and nice all the time. And no one would dare mess with her, she had an unheard of strength to make even the scariest jock run all the way home to his momma.

Then there was Garfield Logan. He was the funny man. Another junior who had been an 'item' at some point with Roth, but now simply good friends. Some still say too good, but they are promptly ignored. He had had an obsession with animals that he hadn't outgrown, which lead him to pursue a vegetarian diet. He had dyed his blonde hair green around freshmen year and replaced his blue eyes with green contacts. Some blamed it on his newest girlfriend, Tara Markov, but those close to Logan knew that he had lost a bet with his best friend Victor Stone, had fallen in love with the new look and kept it, only to annoy Vic.

Finally Victor Stone, a jock and a supergenius. His prowess on the field as an athlete was only surpassed by his tech know-how. Victor was a great big bear of a man and a senior who had been held back a year for missing too much school. He still wouldn't tell anyone what had happened that made him late all those days, or simply skip out whole weeks at a time. But most chalked it up to the pressure his father had put him under in the final days of his junior and senior years before.

Overall, a very interesting and ragtag group of teens. 'He'll fit right in,' Jason though acidly.

Of course, Jason wouldn't give a rat's ass what others thought of him. He chose not to associate with the Titans, or any other kids, really. He was a loner, but not very lonely... Confusing, no?

Not for Jason. He knew exactly where he fit in the pecking order known as High School, and he wasn't about to change it either. As mentioned, he wouldn't give a rat's ass. He was just trying to make it through school to college. Maybe even take over Wayne Enterprises in the distant future... if Bruce ever went senile early and forgot to hand over the company to Dick...

Or Tim...

Or even Alfred...

Bruce really didn't trust Jason. There, that sums it up nicely.

Jason turned away from the group of laughing teens, bumping right into his new, very pissed off partner.

"I really hope that you're not thinking that I'm gonna end up doing all the work, cause we're gonna end up with a really craptastic project if you don't contribute your expertise," Rachel said through clenched teeth.

"Okay, Mom," Jason replied. Before Rachel could give a witty comeback, the bell rang to start the school day. With a shout, Jason called, "Saved by the bell!" and ran off to his first class.

"Don't dream this is over, Todd!" Rachel tried yelling, but he was already long gone.

...

"So let me get this straight. X onto the square root-"

"There's not such thing as 'onto'," Rachel interrupted.

"Pardon me?" Jason said.

"'Onto'. No. Such. Thing. Maybe 'X multiplied by' or something like that, but no 'onto'. It's not proper grammar."

"Since when did you worry about grammar?"

"Since when did you worry about what I worried about?"

"Since when did you become such a.. a... a jerk face?"

"Since when did you expand your vocabulary to match a third grader's?"

"Since when did-"

"How about you two cut the flirting so that we can move on with the lesson, eh?" Their algebra teacher, Mr. La Salle, interrupted. Both Rachel & Jason's faces turned pink as they fell silent.

"That's what I thought. Now, can anyone tell me-"

"I win," Rachel whispered as La Salle continued his lesson on quadratic formulas. Anything to get under Jason's skin.

Refusing to let Rachel have the last word, Jason took out some notes he had made during his last class and started passing them to her. Most were over the project that they had yet to end research on, but a few were merely barbs that he had thought up and were fairly appropriate for the situation they had been placed in.

Rachel took each insult in stride, reading them with a perfect poker face. Though, on the inside she felt like screaming out what an inconsiderate jerk Jason was making of himself.

When she was sure that La Salle wouldn't hear, she whispered to him, "We'll go over this after school."

...

'Whoever Rachel thinks she is, she certainly isn't funny,' Jason thought to himself as he tried jumpstarting his car for the billionth time.

He had caught sight of her and Kori heading for the school parking lot and was very close to calling out for her, when _he_ showed up.

Jason's 'older brother', Dick.

And sure enough, the two girls stopped dead in their tracks. Jason wasn't surprised to see Kori fawning over him, but he was slightly shocked when it looked like Rachel was extremely pissed off.

He watched as Dick cringed during her onslaught of verbal abuse. 'Yep, he definitely pissed her off,' Jason thought to himself. 'Wonder how Grayson managed that. Only his first day here and he's ticked off the school's resident not-goth.'

Rachel then grabbed Kori's hand and angrily stalked off the rest of the way to the parked car waiting for them. She appeared to call back one last barb before opening the door and shutting it rather harshly upon boarding the vehicle.

Dick, who looked fairly ticked off, then spat on the grass beside the curb and headed for his motorcycle. 'Surprise, surprise, the prodigal son brought his precious R-cycle with him to Jump.' Starting the bike, Dick took a glance around the parking lot as if checking to be sure there were no more witnesses.

'And the plot thickens,' Jason thought bitterly. Not that what went on between Dick and Rachel was any of his business, but it was certainly a nice distraction from the fact that his car refused to start and he might have to hit someone up for a ride.

"C'mon, you can die on me as soon as you get me home, just START WORKING!" he yelled at the dashboard.

Miraculously, the car engine roared in response. Jason let out a cheer and began pulling out of the parking lot. It was a peaceful drive to Wayne Enterprises, where Bruce had him holed up at the penthouse.

Forgetting how mad he was with Rachel, he found himself in for a big surprise when driving into the parking garage near Wayne Enterprises, and finding not only her, but his surrogate family waiting for him as well.

'Holy family reunion!' He thought for a minute, debating on whether or not he could simply drive past and find a nice motel a few miles away from the city. But Jason knew better.

"Let's get this over with," he mumbled to himself as he shut the car door and made his way across the garage. "Um... Anyone gonna ask me how school was?"

...

Author's Notes: La Salle & De Mille are Warp & Madame Rouge, respectively.  
'WHAT?' You ask, 'This is being continued?' The answer: Yes, why yes it sort of is.  
I had a basic idea running around my head for awhile & I'm still waiting for my beta to send me that proofread chap back for BtSaIB (acronyms, gotta love 'em!). I do have a general idea of where to take this, but fair warning... I still have no idea what I'll be doing with this. XD If it gets enough support, I'll try for a solid ending, but this is still very much a work-in-progress. Updates shall be spontaneous & unexplained, as this isn't a really big part of my focus right now. But tell me what you think of it. Is Rachel more in character? Does Jason seem believable? Does this even look like it has a plot to it? XD Welp, enough of that. Hopefully I'll have more posts for mah other fics soon.  
Till then, happy reading! :D


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